But the battle wasn’t over. I knew that. Lang & Pierce wouldn’t back down easily, and my mother wasn’t going to let this slide without one last fight. But now, I had something they didn’t: proof that I wasn’t going to be intimidated. Not anymore.
“I think we’re going to need to take this one step further,” I said, my gaze fixed on the door through which Lang & Pierce had just walked out. “I’m not waiting for them to make the next move. I’m making mine.”
Over the next few days, things moved faster than I had ever expected. Jasmine worked with the Secretary of State’s office to ensure that Lang & Pierce’s fraudulent filing was completely blocked, and we launched a full-scale legal defense. We had a public relations team on standby, ready to deal with any media fallout, and I made sure every employee at Seabrook Cove knew exactly where they stood. No one—no one—was going to get away with undermining what I had built.
But as the legal battles unfolded and the press continued to cover the story, it became clear that my mother’s influence wasn’t something I could just ignore. She had been the catalyst for all of this, whether I liked it or not.
It wasn’t until one afternoon, when I received a letter from her—handwritten—that I realized how deep the conflict ran. The letter was short, but the message was unmistakable:
“I gave you everything, Harper. I built you up, and you tore me down. You’ll regret this. You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
The finality of those words chilled me to the bone. My mother wasn’t just angry. She was desperate.
And desperation had a way of making people do things they would never normally consider.
But I wouldn’t let fear dictate my next steps. This was my fight now. And I was going to win.
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